To All Club Members,  Hope this update finds everyone safe, well and holding up ok under the current isolation restrictions.  Hopefully they’ll be eased when we get to the end of the current stage 4, but looks like there’s a way to go unfortunately..

Just want to bring members up to date on Club news and whats happening out at McGregor Rd in relation to the Cardinia Motorsport Complex, our tracks and the effects for the track users in the short to medium term.

Firstly Club News –  There’s not a lot of good news to report. Our meetings and all other club activities are on hold and will remain so until Victoria can work it’s way through the unfortunate predicament we find ourselves in, before slowly returning to our new normal, what ever that is.  There has been some good news though in the way of Cardinia Council and Government grants, 3 grants had been applied for and we have been successful as follows:

• $1,000       Vic Gov Grant towards COVID19 affected Sporting Clubs
• $1,347.50  Cardinia Council Community Grant towards the purchase of a new tradie trailer to replace the one stolen from our McGregor Rd site some time back
• $3,817.00  Cardinia Council Community Grant towards the purchase of a new 40′ container to house club equipment

Cardinia Motorsport Complex News

• The Cardinia Motorsports Complex was given the green light at this weeks Cardinia Council Meeting (Monday 17 August); councillors voted unanimously in favour of the Stage 1 planning permit. Construction is set to begin on the Cardinia Motorsports Complex within the next six to 12 months. The world class motorsports complex will see a 3.6 kilometre FIM/FIA graded race track – capable of accomodating V8 Supercars and Formula 1 training – built on our current land located down McGregor Road in Pakenham.

Short Term Effect on Our Operations –

• With work on the new Motorsport complex scheduled to commence next year,  we need to start planning the relocation of tracks to the east end of the property on Lot 2 where we currently hold a lease. (Please see below diagram of leased land and track locations)
• As it currently stands a large part of this area is still absolutely saturated from earlier flooding. It’s currently unusable and we suspect this will be the case until much later in the year, providing COVID19 restrictions have eased on sporting events like ours. As soon as we can, we’ll return and mow in basic tracks similar to what we have now just to get bikes back on the tracks. While preparations start on creating more challenging tracks, we’ll be back in business so to speak.
• Negotiations are proceeding with Cardinia Council re a permanent home for the club on a completely seperate parcel of land within the shire. Unfortunately the location is still confidential but as negotiations continue with Council and other Government Departments hopefully the restrictions will be lifted and we can finally announce a permanent home for the club after decades of work for many devoted club members
• We are pushing hard for the relocation to happen sooner rather than later but it’s still a two to three year proposition,  however the wheels are turning…
• So hopefully we’ll only be at McGregor Rd for another 2 years or so and we need to balance out the effort/cost of setting up new tracks and preparations to relocate our buildings/containers for a relatively short stay
• As has always been our aim, the primary club objective is to give kids, families and adults somewhere to ride safely in a friendly and controlled environment which will continue. The tracks might not be the best or the most technical around but they will however provide an opportunity to get your bikes out and go riding which in a lot of cases is all that’s required. So please bare with us during this time.

Long Term Effects –

• With the final approval given for the new Motorsport complex the purchase of Lot 3 will be finalised and payment will be made to Cardinia Council by the developers. A portion of this money will be used by Council for the purchase of land which will become our permanent home.  The acquisition of this land will be the main reason for the length of time before we relocate. The remaining funds will be invested and held in trust by Cardinia Council and be divided equally between the KWR&DMCC and Pakenham Auto Club. Club access to this money will be supported by council on approved projects for development of both KWR&DMCC and Pakenham Auto Club sites. These funds will be in addition to Annual Community Grants for which we can also apply.

No doubt everyone is looking forward to the day we can get the bikes out again and go for a trail, road, adventure or track ride, geez we miss it !!

One last thing….  If you have something of interest, maybe a new bike, an old bike, a project your working or old photo’s that might be of interest to other club members, tell them all about it and put pen to paper along with a few photo’s and we’ll put it on the website. It might help to past some spare COVID time..

On Behalf of the Club Committee

Regards, Spanner